ECOWAS leaders gathered at the 55th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government on 29 June in Abuja, Nigeria. Taking stock of 44 years of co-operation, they committed to consolidating the region’s integration. However, security challenges continue to undermine West Africa’s integration efforts. An ECOWAS extraordinary summit will be held on 14 September 2019 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso to better co-ordinate the fight against terrorism. Read on

Launched at the occasion of the transnational security issues roundtable in June, this report provides some examples of transnational illicit flows that endanger global security by funding conflicts and perpetuating instability. It focuses on four key areas of illicit flows: people, goods, money and data. The report sounds the alarm about the main threats posed by illicit flows and identifies possible co-operative approaches to address the issue, building on the ongoing efforts of multilateral and national bodies. Read on

This op-ed, published on the IPI Global Observatory, by Jorge Moreira da Silva, OECD director of the Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD) and Eric Rosand, director of the Prevention Project and Brookings non-resident senior fellow, calls upon governments and development partners to develop a new approach to development that prioritizes prevention. A stronger focus on prevention will require “a much more coherent effort among political, security, development, humanitarian and peace actors—recognizing that the challenges in fragile contexts are too big and too complex for one set of actors to tackle alone,” explain the authors. Read on

Africa’s largest film festival, the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), celebrated its 50th anniversary from 24 February-2 March. The 26th edition of the festival brought together nearly 100 000 film-lovers and screened 165 films from 16 African countries. The government deployed about 2 000 security forces to maximize security surveillance and protect the festival. Joël Karekezi, a Rwandan filmmaker, won the prestigious Golden Stallion of Yennenga for his “Mercy of the Jungle,” a film that denounces the absurdity of war. Read on